President Obama, Please Read: The Real Reason College Costs So Much

I firmly believe that economic freedom is only achieved by navigating one path, that being, education defined in the broadest of terms (vocational, secondary, higher or even home schooled).

To that end, I applaud President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for their efforts to improve secondary education in our country via the Race to The Top.

President Obama is now laying out a new initiative to make college more affordable for those pursuing higher education. On the surface, who would be averse to making college education more affordable? But let’s dig a little deeper. In doing so, I think we might gain a greater understanding as to whether Uncle Sam is more part of the problem than part of the solution to higher education being so exorbitantly expensive.

The WSJ highlights the work of Richard Vedder who has studied this issue extensively.

Mr. Vedder, age 72, has taught college economics since 1965 and published papers on the likes of Scandinavian migration, racial disparities in unemployment and tax reform. Over the last decade he’s made himself America’s foremost expert on the economics of higher education, which he distilled in his 2004 book “Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much.”

I would only wish that we might have an open forum discussion and debate in which our President and Professor Vedder could engage each other. Vedder maintains that the president’s

. . . plan addresses just “the tip of the iceberg. He’s not dealing with the fundamental problems.” College costs have continued to explode despite 50 years of ostensibly benevolent government interventions, according to Mr. Vedder, and the president’s new plan could exacerbate the trend.

I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

This entry was posted
on Saturday, August 24th, 2013 at 10:37 AM and is filed under Education, General.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.